Eleanor Hardwick and Max Quinton shared one night of incredible passion . . . that was shattered the next day, when Eleanor learned of a bet placed by Max’s friends. Now, five years later, Max still can’t get Eleanor out of his head or his heart. He has a single chance to make a second impression—one that will last forever.
Max Quinton, along with a bunch of other men, took up a bet that they could kiss a woman he’d never met or seen who supposedly was a haughty, cold-hearted bitch. The man who said that about her was pissed off at Eleanor at the time but still…when all was said and done and everyone put their money in it was 200 pounds on the line. For a man who’s fortune isn’t huge that looked like a lot of money. When Max sees Eleanor for the first time, however, he’s mesmerized. He is completely smitten and ends up spending a week in her company at the horse races. They end up in a more intimate situation but as Max will be asking her to marry him he feels it’s all ok. The problem is that when it’s all said and done Eleanor took off without a word and returns all of his mail unopened. Max is devastated. Now it is five years later and he sees Eleanor again and finds that he’s just as much in love with her as he was before, maybe more. They are temporarily neighbors and he tries to see her every moment he can.
Eleanor is now thirty years old and she’s set her mind on never getting married. She saw her parents marriage and the sadness that plagued her mother. Her father was in his own studios world. She’s seen time and time again how marriages just don’t work and she doesn’t ever want to subject herself to that. She has money that came from her mother and no one tells her how to spend it or how to spend her time. She likes her independence! But if she’s honest with herself she never did fully get over her feelings for Max and the more she sees him the more her feelings grow. Unfortunately for Max there’s still the whole I’m-never-getting-married issue that Eleanor is determined to adhere to.
This was a very cute novella. I love reading about couples reuniting – especially after one has been hurt. I think that they dynamic between the two people is a bit more intense because of past hurts.
Eleanor had every right to be upset at Max – or so she thought. Facts come out during the story that prove that Max was sincere in his feelings for her. But when Eleanor thinks about it she still wants to be single. I was so happy to see Max not giving up on Eleanor as I’m sure his pursuit of her was incredibly frustrating. Eleanor was a tad melodramatic but still a great character. I admired her fortitude in the face of her many, many relatives as she was a caretaker. She took her “duties” seriously, she just needed to think of herself a bit more and what she wanted from her future.
Max was wonderful. Seeing him court Eleanor in his own sneaky and underhanded way was wonderful – he was a charmer, no doubt about it. The fact that he never gave up on his love for Eleanor warmed my heart and I wanted nothing more than for them to be together.
I thought the story was charming and I spent a nice bit of time reading about these great characters.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
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